SEA Electric busy with vocational truck releases

SEA Electric is rolling forward with a mix of vocational options that now includes an electric bucket truck.

The electric vehicle manufacturer which has gained strong local council interest in its clean-driving compactor has releases the vehicle, also known as an elevated work platform truck (EWP) or "cherry picker" truck, saying it is "powerful enough to operate the elevated boom and travel over 200km on a single charge".

The new electric bucket truck is designed by SEA Electric’s engineering team in Melbourne and transformed from an Isuzu chassis in a combined project between SEA Electric and CAL Isuzu (Hamilton) in New Zealand.

The EV bucket truck will be deployed in New Zealand for WELNetworks, a local power company, for power line maintenance, and uses a Versalift arm.

"The electric EWP truck is beneficial to industries requiring mobile elevated platforms as it provides significant savings on diesel, servicing and maintenance, resulting in low total life operating costs," the company says.

"The electric EWP truck is built on an Isuzu FTR chassis and can be adapted to most OEM glider platforms.

"[It is powered] by the SEA-Drive 120b power-system with a 136kWh battery capacity, producing 150kW continuous power and 250kW maximum power.

"More importantly for a commercial vehicle the SEA-Drive 120b produces maximum torque of 2,500Nm, has a range of up to 350km (unladen), with onboard three-phase charger that can be charged to 80 per cent within six hours."

The EWP follows hard on the heels of SEA Electric claiming first to market status with the deployment of a 100 per cent electric tipper truck.

The tipper is to be used in Australia by Yarra City Council, which will point it at hard rubbish collections and is exploring how to transition to electric garbage and recycling trucks over the next five years.

SEA Electric sees urban councils as particularly suited to such electric commercial vehicles and has made some headway with council-controlled and private waste collection operations.